For people who want more info on the Supreme Court case US v Williams (2006)
The Supreme Court in 2008 upheld a provision of a federal child pornography law that makes it a crimes to advertise, promote or present child pornography even if the underlying material does not qualify. In United States v. Williams, the Court rejected a First Amendment challenge that the law...
www.mtsu.edu
The main argument, if I understood correctly, was if someone offered child porn to someone else even though he didn’t actually possess it, is he free to say it? In other words, was it illegal to say you had child porn even though you didn’t physically possess such illegal contraband. The original court said it’s not protected free speech, was repealed and then Supreme Court came back in and settled it and said that it was not protected free speech,
Interesting is the dissenting opinion by Souter and Ginsberg. They say that it undermines free speech. The case that is really disturbing (imho) is the Ashcroft v Free Speech Coalition where it was determined virtual child porn is ok bc no real children are involved. Maybe that’s too simplified. They argue that it shouldn’t be illegal for someone who just looks underage to be involved in pornographic material
Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition: If speech is neither obscene nor child pornography, it is protected from attempts to categorically suppress child pornography even if it is related to it. Statutes that are overly broad in defining what speech is suppressed are unconstitutional.
supreme.justia.com
Please excuse and correct any misinterpretation on my behalf. I am not a lawyer.
I only read a few blurbs, but see
@haute okole ’s post above #570 quoting Souter, and I believe coming to the opposite conclusion As above.
Scalias majority opinion was that an offer to exchange child pornography is not a form of speech protected by the First Amendment. Thus, upholding the constitutionality of the federal statute prohibiting the pandering of child pornography (the statute does not violate the first amendment). Or, in other words, child porn is not protected speech. Scalia was a strict constitutionalist, and the decision was based on the general principle that there is no First Amendment protection for offers to engage in illegal transactions.
The problem was that in keeping with prior child porn case, Ashcroft (that ruled a prior child porn statute was overly broad and did violate the First Amend ent), an offer to receive virtual child porn or simulated child porn is protected under the First Amendment. Scalia‘s exception, in accordance with Ashcroft, was that virtual pornography is protected free speech as it’s not harmful to the child.
Souter and Ginsberg dissented bc all child pornography is intrinsically harmful. . . which is the crux of the quote below and of NY vs. Ferber. In fact, Souter warned that this decision (based on no trigger of the concern for child safety over first amendment protection) would be problematic in many ways beyond porn.
"The tension with existing constitutional law is obvious," Souter wrote. " Free Speech Coalition reaffirmed that nonobscene virtual pornographic images are protected, because they fail to trigger the concern for child safety that disentitles child pornography to First Amendment protection." He also warned that the decision "might have an unsettling
significance well beyond the subject of child pornography." In Free Speech Coalition, the Court had ruled that that virtual pornography did not involve the same harms to children as pornography involving real children. This distinguished it from New York v. Ferber (1982), in which the Court had justified a child pornography exception to the First Amendment's broad free speech protections based on actual harm to The child
@mrsinsyder , as per Scalia the crime of child porn = when the speaker intends the listener that the subject depicts real children. Scalia actually reasoned that with virtual porn, (computer generated or animated) no real child was harmed.
ETA: I find constit law very dry, so may have missed an important point, so i would welcome correction lol